Friday sermon: follow methods of preventive health

Take care of your health and body as both were gifts to you from Allah, the sermon will tell worshippers on Friday.

The faithful will be told to follow Prophet Mohammed’s example by supplicating to Allah each morning and praying for good health.

“Oh Allah, make me healthy in my body. Oh Allah, make me healthy in my hearing. Oh Allah, make me healthy in my sight. There is no god but You,” he would say.

Muslims are obligated to preserve their bodies by adopting the methods and means of preventive health.

“For indeed a dirhams weight (about 6 gm) of protection is better than a qintars weight (about 150kg) of treatment,” the sermon will say.

One of the most important methods of health protection is cleanliness and, for that, Allah has given Muslims ablution.

“Oh you who have believed, when you rise to [perform] prayer, wash your faces and your forearms to the elbows and wipe over your heads and wash your feet to the ankles,” the Quran reads.

In this verse, Allah says cleanliness is a great act of worship.

Prayer is mandatory for all able Muslims and ablution is an obligatory precursor to prayer. The washing of limbs, which are vulnerable to contamination, is therefore guaranteed for those who pray.

The Prophet would wash his limbs three times to be completely clean. Muslims are encouraged to follow his exampled and enter their prayer in a state of purity and good health.

The Prophet would also encourage Muslims to perform ablution at home before going to the mosque, ensuring that they are clean before going to a public place.

Prophet Mohammed advised people afflicted by a contagious disease not to interact with others, to protect their health.

"The sick should not be mixed with the healthy," he said.

Any worshipper who feels symptoms such as a fever in his body or a cold or cough or sneeze, should pray at home and not attend the mosque, the sermon will say.

They should not pray in congregation, not even for Friday prayers, and this should continue until Allah facilitates their healing.

Sick Muslims should also attempt to protect others from their ailment by covering their mouth when they sneeze or cough.

The sermon will invite the faithful to pray to Allah to bless them with good health in their bodies and well-being in their souls.